Reform UK receives second £36m donation in two days

Reform UK has received two record-matching £36m donations in less than 48 hours, a surge of funding that the party says will put it on “election footing” and that critics say intensifies questions over political finance rules.

Christopher Harborne, a Thailand-based cryptocurrency investor who has previously donated millions to Reform and Nigel Farage, announced the latest gift in The Telegraph on Saturday. He said his “competitive spirit” had inspired him to match the £36m donation announced a day earlier by Ben Delo, co-founder of the BitMEX cryptocurrency exchange.

Harborne described the money as a “philanthropic gift” to the country and said he expected “nothing personally” in return. He wrote that he had “already accumulated enough wealth for the rest of my life” and said Reform was a “start-up party” without “the benefit of hundreds of years of patronage.”

“A start-up party needs more money than can be provided by membership fees alone, to build and sustain itself and be ready for government,” Harborne said.

The £72m pledged by Harborne and Delo is more than the just over £69m received by all UK political parties combined last year, the BBC reported. The donations are the largest declared by a UK political party since reporting requirements began in 2001.

Reform said the money would be used to hire “the brightest and best minds to work on policy and the most comprehensive plan for government ever.” A party spokesman said Reform would also be able to hire up to 400 campaign managers in target constituencies. “We are now on election footing,” the spokesman said.

Farage said Harborne and Delo’s “generosity” meant Reform would “now be able to fight and win the next general election on a level playing field.” In a post on X cited by Al Jazeera, he said: “You know what Ben Delo and Christopher Harborne want? Nothing. Just a government that will fix Britain. And that’s what Reform UK will deliver.”

Reform deputy leader Richard Tice rejected claims that the donations were bad for democracy. “It’s the opposite actually, we’re delighted and very humbled by the confidence expressed by two very successful entrepreneurs who realise Britain’s in serious trouble,” he told BBC Radio 4. Tice also told Sky News that Delo’s donation had been paid upfront “so that the Labour Party can’t legislate against it” and would be spent over two or three years.

The donations arrive as Reform faces scrutiny over its finances. The Metropolitan Police is investigating after a Channel 4 News broadcast showed two senior Reform aides apparently suggesting a way around electoral law to secure foreign party donations. Reform denies wrongdoing. The force is also looking into donations to the party from Fiona Cottrell, mother of Farage ally George Cottrell, and from a company controlled by Tice.

Farage is separately under investigation by the parliamentary standards commissioner over whether he should have declared a £5m cash gift from Harborne before the 2024 election. Farage has said he was not required to register the “purely private” gift because it was unrelated to his parliamentary or political activities.

There is currently no limit on how much UK-based donors can give to political parties. The Labour government has introduced a £100,000 cap on donations from British citizens living overseas and plans a similar limit for those who have recently returned to the UK.

Labour chairwoman Bridget Phillipson said Reform and Farage still had “serious questions” to answer and called on them to cooperate with police investigations. Green Party deputy leader Rachel Millward called the sums “absolutely staggering” and said her party wanted a £500,000 cap on individual donations. Liberal Democrat Cabinet Office spokeswoman Lisa Smart urged emergency legislation, saying: “These are eye-watering amounts of money.”

Transparency International UK’s Duncan Hames called the donations “a watershed moment,” adding: “This situation is now completely out of control, and makes an irrefutable case for government to bring forward an annual cap on political donations, and fast.”